House Speaker John Boehner issued a furious call for unity to Republicans today, telling his fractious rank and file to 'get your ass in line' behind his debt crisis plan.

As public outrage continues to build over the inability of politicians to solve the nation’s debt crisis, Boehnercalleda closed-door meeting of the entire House Republican conference yesterday morning.

'Get your ass in line,' he told them ahead of today's vote on the bill, which was hastily rewritten to show deeper spending
cuts than 24 hours earlier. 'I can't do this job unless you're behind me.'

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Get in line: House Speaker John Boehner made the comments during a closed-door meeting with the entire House Republican conference

Debate: Democrat President Barack Obama, left, and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, right, have been at the forefront of negotiations to avoid the U.S. government slipping into a first-ever default next week

The House Speaker made his impassioned plea asWall
Street suffered its worst day in eight weeks yesterday - a likely
consequence of growing anger at politicians' inability to come to any
conclusive agreement over the debt crisis.

The
markets were hit again as no movement was forthcoming in talks with the
deadline for a default looming. Weak earnings and poor industrial and
technological economic data added to the concern.

The
switchboard at Congress almost went down, the websites of several
Congressmen and Senators have crashed and a #F**kYouWashington Twitter
campaign has been launched.

Worry: The public concern at politicians' inability to solve the debt critics so far seemed to be mirrored on Wall Street on Wednesday as stock markets begin to fall faster than earlier on in the week

The anger has mounted since President
Obama urged Americans on Monday to ask representatives to compromise on a
deal to raise the federal debt level and avoid a first-ever government
default.

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The Capitol switchboard sent out an alert on Tuesday and warned that the huge number of calls was putting the system ‘near capacity’, suggesting politicians start using alternative lines as a backup.

The websites of Republicans House Speaker John Boehner, of Ohio, and Representative Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota, were shut down due to heavy traffic after a huge amount of emails.

The #F**kYouWashington hashtag on Twitter saw up to 20,000 tweets in one hour and more than 36,000 over the course of the day, reported the New York Post.

Not impressed: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, centre, who has told his fellow politicians to stop 'whining', is surrounded by Republican staffers as he walks to a meeting in Washington D.C.

Tweet: Just one of thousands of posts in the Twitter #F**kYouWashington campaign as public anger rises

Today the Dow Jones fell 199 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 12,303, the Standard & Poor's
500 dropped 27 points, or 2 per cent, to 1,305, and the Nasdaq
composite fell 75 points, or 2.7 per cent, to 2,765.

And
it’s not just the public and investors who are angry. Majority Leader
Eric Cantor urged fellow Republicans to stop ‘whining’ and back Mr
Boehner’s latest plan. ‘The debt-limit vote sucks,’ he said.

'I'm ready to drive the car': Clip from 'The Town' shown to Republicans

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, of California, began a talk to House Republicans on Tuesday by showing a clip from 2010 Boston bank heist film 'The Town'.

In the clip, Doug MacRay (played by Ben Affleck, left) tells James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner, right): 'I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later.'

Mr Coughlin then replies: 'Whose car are we gonna take?' After the clip, Representative Allen West, of Florida, stood up and reportedly said: 'I’m ready to drive the car.'

Mr Affleck has heard the news, and said in a statement: 'I don't know if this is a compliment or the ultimate repudiation. But if they're going to be watching movies, I think "The Company Men" is more appropriate.'

(see more in MSNBC video below)

But a deal still seems some way off
despite the U.S. Treasury saying without an agreement by next Tuesday it
will be unable to pay all of its bills - including debt interest
payments.

The International Monetary Fund has already urged U.S. politicians to solve the crisis, and the group’s head Christine Lagarde said an ‘adverse shock’ would have knock-on effects worldwide.

It seemed the fear is also spreading to the markets, as Wall Street indexes have begun to fall at a faster rate today than earlier this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average opened down
73 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 12,428 today. The Standard & Poor's 500
Index was off 9 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 1,323, and the Nasdaq dropped 19 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 2,821.

By afternoon trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies had fallen 16 points, or 2 per cent, to 809. The Dow Jones lost 115 points, falling 0.9 per cent to 12,385.

Standard & Poor's 500 fell 19 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 1,312, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 59 points, or 2.1 per cent, to 2,781.

Investors are concerned that America's triple-A credit rating could be downgraded or there may be a debt default, which would raise interest rates across the board and slow down an already-stuttering U.S. economy.

But many experts believe a solution will
be found before the deadline. ‘The view is that Congress will get its
act together,’ Priya Misra, of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told the
Daily Telegraph.

But this calmness could be because some analysts on Wall Street actually think the deadline will be later than next Tuesday. Barclays Capital has suggested the deadline is actually on August 10.

Open hands: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, accompanied by Senator Charles Schumer, of New York, takes questions as he talks about the conflicting plans to deal with the debt crisis on Wednesday

Sort it out: The International Monetary Fund has already urged U.S. politicians to solve the crisis, and the group's head Christine Lagarde said an 'adverse shock' would have knock-on effects worldwide

Democrats and Republicans have been
continuing along with their two competing plans to solve the debt crisis
with only days to come up with a compromise for raising the
$14.3trillion debt limit.

The White House warned Republicans
yesterday that Mr Obama would veto Mr Boehner's debt plan which includes
a short-term debt increase of $1trillion and $1.2trillion in spending
cuts.

The vote on Mr Boehner's plan was
pushed back to Thursday from Wednesday amid opposition by fellow
Republicans as well as Democrats.

Republican Representative Jason
Chaffetz, of Utah, said Mr Boehner’s legislation will ‘need more drastic
cuts’ and Bill Huizenga, of Michigan, stated he is having trouble
finding ‘a path toward yes’.

A separate plan crafted by Democrat Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid also faced a setback when the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office said the proposal would cut $2.2 trillion
from deficits.

Awkward moment: President Barack Obama, right, sits next to House Speaker John Boehner, left, in the Cabinet Room of the White House last Saturday in Washington D.C. as they met to discuss the debt

This was about $500billion less than Democrats had claimed. But it wasn't the only plan criticised.

Mr Boehner rushed to revise his own proposal after separate CBO analysis found it would cut spending by $350 billion less than the $1.2trillion over 10 years he had claimed.

Amid the political brinkmanship, congressional leaders including Mr Boehner, Mr Reid and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell were holding conversations on how to break the impasse.

U.S. stock futures were mixed today as lawmakers remained at odds over how to avoid a default.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures were up six, or 0.1 per cent, at 12,438. Standard & Poor's 500 futures were down two, or 0.1 per cent, at 1,324. Nasdaq 100 futures were down three, or 0.1 per cent, at 2,420.